Hacker has a sting in the tale
Tuesday November 03 2009
FEMME BOOKEND: The girl who kicked the hornet's nest
Thriller by Swedish reporter, ja?
You betcha. Third and last of the series by the late Stieg Larsson. He handed a publisher the manuscripts of the three books and promptly dropped dead aged 50. The books have been an international sensation.
Nice for his heirs.
Not, it turns out, for the woman who shared his life for 30 years. Under Sweden's tight-fisted cohabitation laws, Eva Gabrielsson isn't entitled to a single ore.
Ouchy.
She's going to write about it, apparently. But meanwhile . . .
Oh yah, the hornet's nest.
Hornets', plural. Lisbeth Salander, our hero, starts the book in hospital with a brain injury and riddled with bullets.
Eee, no -- it's not about her?
Not for the first 250 pages or so; you can basically skip them. At that stage, ace reporter Blomkvist -- Larsson's fictional alter ego -- smuggles in her Palm Tungsten, and she's suckin' diesel again.
Who are these eponymous hornets?
Basically, Sweden's security services, they've been covering up after a cell of lunatic Russian defectors and psycho killers for years and in the process they've had young Lisbeth confined to a mental hospital for much of her youth. Now, facing exposure, they have too much to lose.
So it's a spy story?
Ironically, in the circumstances, it's about suppression of women, and how male society closes ranks to enable violent men.
Salander is a hacker, if I remember rightly.
And her faceless friends, citizens of the online 'Hacker Republic', weigh in to help her, as do unconnected women -- a newspaper editor, a lawyer, a security official and a policewoman. And Blomkvist, natch.
Good, then?
Not as great as the first two. But fans will read it just to find out what happens to Salander.
- Lucille Redmond
